Homer Fairs & Festivals

This unique fes­ti­val in Homer, Alas­ka is an art-lovers dream.

A beau­ti­ful 100k race on remote pis­ton bul­ly snow trails in the spec­tac­u­lar Cari­bou hills out­side of Homer. Rac­ers pick one mode: FAT­BIKE, SKI, or RUN and must fin­ish in one day or less. Start­ing point is McNeil Canyon Ele­men­tary School.

The first Sun­day of August brings a spe­cial event to Homer: the oppor­tu­ni­ty to step into pri­vate gar­dens that show­case the unique­ness of Alaskan gar­den­ing and get some real insight into what it’s like to work the land in a place where the grow­ing sea­son is short and the days long. Some 400 peo­ple come to Homer from all over, some of them gar­den­ers from oth­er parts of Alas­ka, and oth­ers from out­side the state who sim­ply have an inter­est in  ...more

The Kachemak Bay Wood­en Boat Soci­ety holds an annu­al fes­ti­val in Sep­tem­ber. Fea­tures include a tour of the waters includes a WWII era wood­en tug con­vert­ed for char­ter use, kids boat build­ing, marine demon­stra­tions (includ­ing knot tying, net mend­ing, and bronze cast­ing. For enter­tain­ment, lis­ten to tall tales and poets.

The Homer High­land Games are ded­i­cat­ed to the edu­ca­tion of the gen­er­al pub­lic about the Celtic Cul­ture through ath­let­ics, music and infor­ma­tion about one of the most ancient ath­let­ic events in his­to­ry start­ing back in 1057 A.D. when King Mal­colm Can­more, who called upon the Clans to send their best run­ners, for he need­ed mes­sen­gers, send their best fight­ers, for he need­ed a pri­vate army, and send the strongest, for he need­ed per­son­al guards.  ...more

Locat­ed on the shores of Kachemak Bay, Homer is one of the most acces­si­ble and beau­ti­ful places for shore­bird view­ing in Alas­ka. Many vis­i­tors fly in (with the birds) while oth­ers dri­ve the scenic road, about four hours south from Anchor­age. Over 100,000 shore­birds migrate through this area, some stay­ing to make their homes here. Many trav­el thou­sands of miles rest­ing and feed­ing at a few crit­i­cal stop-over points such as the base of the Homer  ...more

The Homer Jack­pot Hal­ibut Der­by is the longest run­ning der­by in Alas­ka and boasts the largest jack­pot, too.

All races are on cours­es that make them easy to watch from the end of the Spit. Fre­quent­ly they race around the ​‘green can’ mark­er on a shoal west of the Spit, and Gull Island, a few miles across Kachemak Bay from end of the Spit. Some­times there are only four boats rac­ing and oth­er times up to 20. They are very open-mind­ed sailors and whether or not you have had any sail­ing expe­ri­ence they wel­come new crew. Cap­tains and Crews meet on P…  ...more

Every Sep­tem­ber since 2004, an inter­est­ing tra­di­tion has tak­en place: locals cre­ate a giant woven bas­ket with birch, fire­weed, and grass, set it out on the beach, dec­o­rate it, throw notes into it, and then, at sun­down, burn it up in spec­tac­u­lar fash­ion. Artist Mavis Muller began this unique event, and today, it makes for a vibrant evening, filled with music and danc­ing, that show­cas­es a strong com­mu­ni­ty spir­it and respect for the local  ...more

The sum­mer out­door Farmer’s Mar­ket, on the right side of Ocean Dri­ve en route to the Spit, offers not only fresh pro­duce and art, but also per­form­ing artists on stage. It’s a very pleas­ant aspect of Homer life. The enter­tain­ment ranges from singer/​songwriter gui­tarists, quar­tets, elab­o­rate dance per­for­mances to marim­ba bands to men­tion a few. In a town so full of tal­ent, one can always expect an added treat at the Farmer’s Mar­ket, not only in  ...more